Читать книгу Photovoltaics from Milliwatts to Gigawatts - Tim Bruton - Страница 15

While the Bell discovery was heralded as a great breakthrough, with the New York Times stating it ‘may mark the beginning of a new era, leading eventually to the realisation of one of mankind’s most cherished dreams – the harnessing of the almost limitless energy of the sun for the uses of civilisation’ [29] and the US News & World Report claiming ‘the (silicon) strips may provide more power than all the world’s coal, oil and uranium’ [30], the reality in 1954 was somewhat different. The cost of the high‐purity silicon needed to make viable solar cells was very high at $845/kg, resulting in an estimated cost of electricity of $144/kWh, compared to $23.7/kWh for dry cell batteries and less than $0.02/kWh for retail grid electricity [31]. Despite this disadvantage, Bell’s manufacturing subsidiary, Western Electric, took up commercialisation. One of the first applications was powering a remote telephone line in rural Georgia (USA). However, the introduction of silicon transistors for voice amplification with a very low power requirement made the application redundant and activity at Bell largely declined [31]. Western Electric licensed other companies to manufacture the silicon solar cells, one of which, National Fabricated Products, went as far as to assemble a range of demonstration products. But no market was forthcoming and National Fabricated Products was taken over by Hoffman Electronics in 1956. Hoffman provided prototypes for both the US Coast Guard and the US Forest Service, but no business resulted. The initial enthusiasm cooled to the extent that in 1957 it was reported that ‘Viewed in the light of the world’s power needs, these gadgets are toys’ [32].